Saturday, October 31, 2009

Fists Fly in O'Fallon

Bob McCarty: ObamaCare supporter punches man over sign at anti-socialism rally near St. Louis:
A 67-year-old St. Charles County man taking part in an anti-socialism rally was punched in the face by an ObamaCare supporter who took offense at the sign he was carrying during a rally at the intersection of Highways K and N
I haven't seen any additional news over at Purple People Beaters yet, so I expect they're out trick-or-treating. Nothing at K-N-Patriots.com, either... maybe they'll have something early in the week.

Cross Coverage:

RINO Season Opens

Bill Hennessy New York 23: When a Nation Calls:
Before the polls open in upper New York on Tuesday morning, thousands of Tea Partiers from states as far away as California will have had an impact on what might otherwise have been an unnoticed special election. Local Tea Party Organizers across the country are overwhelmed by their people’s desire to help.
You can help Hoffman with a phone call or three. Chris Christie could use your help in his bid for the governorship of the Garden State.

When in doubt, vote 'em out!!!

UPDATE: Tea Partiers get results: Scozzafavva quits! No sooner do I blog this than the whole race changes. Hoffman will still need your support. Into the breach once more!!!

UPDATE 2: Gateway Pundit links. Thanks for link... and lunch! I've got video coverage from the St Louis Tea Party Dump Dede presser. Parents may be interested in my interview with St Louis area "As a Mom" co-leader Jacquelyn.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

White House attacks Edmunds.com

No longer content to simply dither, Obama's White House has decided to pick a fight with Edmunds.com. Yes, the car buyer/rating website:
But in addition to Fox News, now The White House is going after highly-respected and influential car site Edmunds.com.

They're actually using The White House blog to dispute the site's analysis of Cash-For-Clunkers (via Detroit News).

As a Mom


Interview with Jacquelyn of As a Mom

I arrived home one day after running some errands and, as I was parking, I heard the call. I only caught part of it and I didn't get the name of the website, so I called Patch over at POedPatriot and asked him about it. He sent me the link: www.AsAMom.org. As A Mom is a "Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots." There are subgroups for each state. I signed up and joined the Missouri moms group.

There was discussion of setting up a face-to-face with St Louis area moms. That came to fruition today in Clayton for about fifteen of us (and several children). Mostly it was just to get to know one another and make sure that the grassroots continue to grow. After today's event, I interviewed Jacquelyn (video above). While she helped coordinate our first face-to-face meeting, it was Letitia who got the ball rolling. Unfortunately, Letitia was unable to attend due to some health issues. Keep her in your prayers!

Video: St Louis Tea Party Dump Dede Presser (10/23)


Bill Hennessy and Dana Loesch Rally the Crowd to Dump Dede

Last Friday, 10/23/9, Bill Hennessy and Dana Loesch led a protest against GOP backroom politics in NY23. Bill praised Ed Martin for going against the GOP machine while Dana announced that the Tea Party will kick the GOP to the curb or take them over if they don't shape up.

Cross Coverage:
Previously:

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Dana Announces Tea Party Take Over of GOP


Dana Loesch announces Tea Party take over of GOP

On Friday, 10/23/9, Bill Hennessy and Dana Loesch led a protest against GOP backroom politics in NY23. Here, Dana Loesch announces that the Tea Party is taking over the GOP. Dana calls on the GOP to Dump Dede because Dede does not represent the conservative values of mainstream Republicans.

Cross Coverage:

Bill Hennessy Praises Ed Martin


Bill Hennessy praises Ed Martin for standing up to the GOP machine

On Friday, 10/23/9, Bill Hennessy and Dana Loesch led a protest against GOP backroom politics in NY23. Bill praised Ed Martin (Republican challenger to Russ Carnahan in MO03) for calling on the GOP to Dump Dede because she does not represent the values of conservatives and mainstream Republicans.

Cross Coverage:

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Video: Ed Martin takes Tax Payer Protection Pledge (Bumped)

Ed Martin signs Tax Payer Protection Pledge

Last Thursday, 10/22/9, Ed Martin and Grover Norquist made stops throughout MO-03. At each stop, Ed signed the Americans for Tax Reform's Tax Payer Protection Pledge. I went to their last stop at Imo's Pizza on Telegraph Rd in south county where state senator Jim Lembke (R) introduced Ed. Ed and Grover spoke briefly about the importance of the Tax Payer Protection Pledge before the signing.

After signing the pledge, Ed asked Marsha Haefner and Gary Fuhr to speak. Both Haefner and Fuhr are running for state rep—Haefner in the 100th and Fuhr in the 97th. Haefner spoke of the devastating impact that Cap and Tax will have on her garden center. Fuhr spoke of leveraging his background in law enforcement to help rein in Jefferson City.

Michelle Moore of www.ATraditionalLifeLived.com live streamed the event.

Grover Norquist


Bumped: I accidentally left the publication date for this post as last week. I've revised it to Tuesday, 10/27.


Monday, October 26, 2009

Small Businesses Need Cash in their Customer's Pockets

President Obama vs. David McArthur

President Obama announced more loans would be made available so small businesses can expand their operations. Small business owner David McArthur explains that his customers need more money to spend in his store before he can consider expanding his business.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Are the End Times Here?

The November issue of Harvard Magazine includes a biographical sketch of Ayn Rand:
Rand’s early writing reflected her belief in individualism and commitment to free-market capitalism, developed during her years under Soviet rule. By 1957, when she published her third novel, Atlas Shrugged, she had codified and extended her ideas into a system she called Objectivism, which elevated selfishness to a virtue. Rand now understood herself as a philosopher as much as a novelist. In 1961 she published her first work of nonfiction, For the New Intellectual, and one of her young acolytes, Nathaniel Branden, began offering courses in Objectivist philosophy in New York.

The problem was that few of Rand’s contemporaries accorded her philosophy any respect. Atlas Shrugged was panned by critics and hated by academics, who detested both her politics and her romantic writing style. Some professors automatically failed any student who wrote about Rand; others published articles warning of her terrible influence on youth.
Some professors automatically failed any student who wrote about Rand!? That's a damning admission of close mindedness from a lofty pinnacle of the ivory tower.

The Harvard piece is a bit snarky, but not overly so. For a criticism of her philosophy, I recommend Dr. Ross's page on Ayn Rand, Anti-Communism, and the Left.

Friday, October 23, 2009

St Louis Tea Party takes on the GOP

Dana LoeschDana Loesch

Dana Loesch and Bill Hennessy called for the GOP to dump Dede in NY-23. Loesch and Hennessy spoke outside of St. Louis City Hall where they called on Tea Partiers to support conservative Doug Hoffman over liberal, Acorn-backed, Dede Scozzafava. When asked about this confrontation with the GOP, Dana remarked that Tea Partiers were not going to be co-opt by the Republican Party, but were rather in the process of taking it over. Bill Hennessy praised Ed Martin (R), who is running to unseat Russ Carnahan (D-MO) in MO-03, for taking a stand in support of Doug Hoffman. Bill called on other Missouri Republicans to do the same. Paul Curtman, who is running for state rep in Missouri's 105th, was there to support conservatism and Doug Hoffman. Check out some of my pictures from the event.

Cross Coverage:
  • A Traditional Life Lived has video coverage
  • Dana Loesch puts the story in her own words
Instalanche!!! Woah! I was at Activist Training when all y'all came through the door. Make yourself at home and be sure to checkout my twitpic photo feed and YouTube channel. Thanks for stopping by!

Cool! Smitty over at The Other McCain noticed the great photo of Dana above. I've got more Rule 5 Dana Loesch. I'm thinking about setting up a Dana photo gallery.... maybe call it the "Daily Dana" or something.

My latest coverage of Dana Loesch.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Paul Curtman

Paul Curtman

I spoke with Paul Curtman on Wednesday. He's running for state representative in Missouri's 105th district as a Republican. Paul rose to fame over the summer when he stepped up to a microphone at a townhall meeting and provided a two and a quarter minute summary of the US Constitution. I had the best seat in the house for that lesson. I've pulled Paul's remarks out of the longer video that I posted back in July and corrected the color—there was a green cast from the florescent lighting. Here it is:


To learn more about Paul and/or offer to help him, check out his website: www.PaulCurtman.com.

Please Pass the Popcorn

Instapundit: "THERE ARE SOME SECTIONS OF THE G.O.P. I WOULD NOT ADVISE YOU TO INVADE: White House Drops Fox Thing, Goes After Cheney. Yeah, this’ll end well. . . ."

I'm stayin' up to watch this one!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Keyboard Militia has video of Lord Christopher Monckton:
On October 14, Lord Christopher Monckton, a noted climate change skeptic, gave a presentation in St. Paul, MN. In this 4-minute excerpt from his speech, he issues a dire warning to all Americans regarding the United Nations Climate Change Treaty
Sharp Elbows StL has audio of Howard Stern defending Rush Limbaugh
Keith Hennessy writes in the jobs battle: "Every time I hear “[number] jobs saved or created,” I ignore the number and assume I am being spun." Me too.
Moe Lane: "it’s not pretty for Democrats." No, no it's not.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

HIV Vaccine Research is Ambiguous

New analysis suggests AIDS Vaccine Is of Modest Help:
When first publicly disclosing the outcome of the Thai trial in September, researchers said the vaccine had lowered the risk of infection by about 31%. That result was modest but statistically significant, meaning it wasn't the result of a fluke. That announcement, coming after two decades of failed HIV vaccine trials, garnered headlines around the world.

Now, two other analyses of the trial data suggests that the results could have been due to pure chance, and therefore the vaccine may not have conferred protection to people after all. The additional data are published today in the New England Journal of Medicine and will be more fully discussed today by researchers attending an AIDS meeting in Paris.

It's time for Dunn to go

Victor Davis Hanson in a Corner post at NRO Now We Know Why He Passed on the Dalai Lama writes:
I am not a big fan of saying that officials should resign for stupid remarks. But interim White House communications director Anita Dunn's praise of Mao Zedong as a "political philosopher" is so unhinged and morally repugnant, that she should hang it up, pronto.
I'm with the professor and the many others that have called for Anita Dunn to go. For every person that died in a war in the 20th century, four died at their government's hands (see: Death by Government by R. J. Rummel). Mao Zedong is responsible for about 70 million deaths. Much like other communist states, those deaths occurred in the shadows and remain largely ignored by the American left. Anita, it's time to go.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Sovereign Immunity for Treasury Incorporated

Via Instapundit, J. W. Verret at The Volokh Conspiracy examines Treasury Incorporated:
To sum up my position: the theory and practice of corporate and securities law are unprepared for the presence of a control shareholder, like the government, that also enjoys sovereign immunity from the federal securities laws and state corporation law.
The legal principal of sovereign immunity evolved at a time when governments were much smaller and un-intrusive. As in healthcare, significant legal problems are created in corporate law by an immune shareholder.

Also of interest from Verret's article:
...if I can establish that the government controls merely the five bailed-out companies in which it has the largest stake (Fannie, Freddie, AIG, Citigroup, Bank of America) then under private sector accounting principles and under government accounting rules (and in these strange times, who knows which is which?) we are currently failing to recognize roughly HALF of the real national debt and HALF of the real budget deficit...

Sports and Rush Limbaugh

The WSJ carries Rush's response to the critics of his NFL bid: "Numerous sportswriters, CNN, MSNBC, among others, falsely attributed to me statements I had never made. Their sources, as best I can tell, were Wikipedia and each other. But the Wikipedia post was based on a fabrication printed in a book that also lacked any citation to an actual source."

Does he realize that he could diamond stud that golden EIB microphone?

Content is still king. It always will be. There are more than a few rabid sports fans that listen to him. Why not add a "sports" tab to RushLimbaugh.com much like sports.yahoo.com? Listener/citizen reports on sporting events would allow him to build out his own sports wire service. Getting player and coach access for his reporters seems like the hardest part.

Sports is outside of the current mission of the EIB which focuses on political commentary. Ultimately, Rush should do this with political journalism. However, sports offers a kind of proving ground for an eventual move into political news gathering. Rush could start with NFL coverage. Add the NBA and NHL a couple months from now and continue doing that until all major US professional sports are integrated. Then add college sports.

News coverage of the sports world can be ramped up in chunks like this. I think that would be harder to do with political coverage. Sports news is also big enough that Rush's crack technical team can build out the infrastructure required for scalability, reliability, and maintainability. Once the sports "proof of concept" is humming, then he adds the EIB political wire.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Photos and Video from the KSDK Can You Hear Us Now Rally

Protesters sing God Bless America

Protesters waive signs at passing cars (photo by Jim B)

Protesters assemble outside KSDK Channel 5 in downtown St Louis (photo by Jim B)


Protester with sign

KSDK news team interviewing one of the protesters

Alex from ConservativeTVonline.com (Check his site for video in a couple days)

Flags

I tweeted the protest. You can see some more pictures from the event at twitpic:

Friday, October 16, 2009

Joe Biden in Wellston

Close to 200 attend Gov Nixon and VP Biden speech

I got an email Wednesday afternoon saying that Joe Biden was comin' to town. I knew the weather had been unseasonably cool, but I wasn't expecting such an early Christmas. Like most videographers, I know that if Biden is in the house, the tape is rolling—you don't want to miss those twelve seconds of comedy gold that will bring you a million views on YouTube. Glenn Reynolds clearly understands this principal:
"AM I THAT DANGEROUS?" Blogger booted by Biden. When Biden’s talking, anyone with a camera and YouTube access is a threat . . . .
Biden's booted blogger was, none other than St Louis Tea Partier: SharpElbowsStL.blogspot.com, but we'll get back to him later.... It was Wednesday afternoon and I had until 3PM to pickup tickets to the event Thursday. I called and emailed some Tea Party friends, but no one was able to get over to Wellston to pickup tickets.

Thursday rolls around. Run some errands and swing by the venue in Wellston: the Police and Fire Training Center. Before finding a place to park, I notice that there's a junk yard right next to the Training Center. That kinda makes sense. They probably burn and shoot stuff at the Police and Fire Training Center, so you wouldn't expect it to be located next to the Chase.

At this point, I'm not expecting to get in, but I need a story. All I know is what KTVI reported (emphasis added):
Vice President Joe Biden will be in St. Louis to discuss how federal money is being used to help create jobs and aid law enforcement. Biden and Gov. Jay Nixon will travel to St. Louis on Thursday. Biden is scheduled to give remarks at the St. Louis County Police and Fire Training Center, beginning at 11:00am

The White House says a limited number of general admission tickets for the public will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
The story that never got reported started to form in my head. I didn't have a lot to work with: federal money and flattened cars stacked five high. That equals cash for clunkers in my mind, so I was planning to do a video report in front some destroyed cars. I'd talk about the fallacy of the broken window and explain how accelerating the purchases of cars with cash for clunkers, shifted money away from durable goods, but had no positive effect on the economy as a whole. There will be another time for that economics lesson...

Getting back on topic... the Police and Fire Training Center... I decided to walk in the front door and ask about tickets. They had a whole stack of 'em. I got one, went in, and immediately sent a message to Dana: "I'm in!!!" I then called Sharp and Rambo to tell them that there were still tickets available.

While I waited for them to arrive, I struck up a conversation with a wire service reporter. I can't find her report from the event online. I also met PD reporter Jake Wagman. He described the size of the crowd as "modest" in his report.

Much of that crowd is seen in the picture above. That photo was taken at 10:26AM. Biden did not arrive until 12:16PM. The late arrival meant that I would have to duck out before Biden finished his remarks.

By the time Biden got there, Sharp had been asked to leave. Rambo and I were camped out towards the front, but we were not in seats. As the VP walked in and took to the stage, someone kept asking us to get in our seats. I headed to the back where I got a little video while ATraditionalLifeLived.com shot some video from close to the front:

Thanks Camille!

Camille Paglia is my favorite liberal. She has an innate immunity to the arrogant elitism that's so typical of the entrenched left. Camille, thank you. From her latest column:
I have been deeply impressed by the citizen outrage that spilled out into town hall meetings this year. And I remain shocked at the priggish derision of the mainstream media (locked in their urban enclaves) toward those events. This was a moving spectacle of grassroots American democracy in action. Aggrieved voters have a perfect right to shout at their incompetent and irresponsible representatives. American citizens are under no duty whatever to sit in reverent silence to be fed propaganda and half-truths. It is bizarre that liberals who celebrate the unruly demonstrations of our youth would malign or impugn the motivation of today's protestors with opposing views.

The mainstream media's failure to honestly cover last month's mass demonstration in Washington, D.C. was a disgrace. The focus on anti-Obama placards (which were no worse than the rabid anti-LBJ, anti-Reagan or anti-Bush placards of leftist protests), combined with the grotesque attempt to equate criticism of Obama with racism, simply illustrated why the old guard TV networks and major urban daily newspapers are slowly dying. Only a simpleton would believe what they say.

Ed Martin raised $200k to Russ Carnahan's $160k (Bumped)

Ed Martin believes that Missourians Are Ready to Take Back Congress:
Together, we have raised more than $201,000 in our fight to take back the Third Congressional District. And every dollar has come from someone just like you, an individual who, despite these tough economic times, is voting with your wallet because your congressman isn't hearing your voice!
It's not that he isn't hearing it's that he isn't listening:



Ed's press release continues:
My friends, this is just the beginning! Russ Carnahan is a three-term incumbent with a full-time fund-raising machine. In the same time period, he has raised over $163,000 – almost all of that from special-interest groups and out-of-town pals with deep pockets. How deep? One Nancy Pelosi fund raiser in his honor last month netted the Carnahan campaign well over $90,000.
Ed had strong numbers this quarter, but with the recent revelations about Robin Carnahan's connections to ACORN and other dubious dealings in her office, he will need more to fight off the Carnahan machine.

Race and Libertarian Orthodoxy

In a much longer piece about his political disaffection, Dr. Kelley Ross, a former Libertarian candidate for office in California, debunks pro-secession libertarians:
One thus commonly finds libertarians, like Walter Williams again, holding that the Southern States had a perfect right to leave the Union, that the Civil War was an act of tyranny, and that the 600,000+ deaths of the War made Abraham Lincoln one of the great mass murderers of history (a favorite accusation of paleoconservative columnist Joseph Sobran). There is a certain logic to this, if one begins with the premise that government is a kind of "contract at will" from which any party can exit at any time for any reason. This, however, is not quite what the Declaration of Independence says:
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing that Forms to which they are accustomed.
So exactly what "Evils" were being suffered by the Southern States that moved them to leave the Union? Well, the threat of the Abolition of Slavery. As Ulysses S. Grant said, this in fact was "one of the worse causes ever." The evils were being practiced by the Slave States, not suffered by them; and they wished to leave the Union in order to continue practicing their evils without opposition. This being the case, the libertarian arguments in relation to Southern Secession try to ignore slavery in favor of other motives, like protective tariffs, for secession....

Although Lincoln was an heir to Whigs and Federalists, and the defeat of secession did remove one of the threats that helped keep the Federal Government within its Constitutional limitations, the Civil War involved a noble cause and, especially through the Civil War Amendments (13th, 14th, & 15th), improved the Constitution. Focusing on the supposed evils of the Union cause, and ignoring that the cause was to abolish one of the greatest evils in history, slavery, not only conveys a message of perversity and moral confusion but, again, like the conspiracy theories, distracts attention from its proper focus, namely the outright destruction of Constutional government in letter and spirit by the New Deal. Franklin Roosevelt, despite building the Jefferson Memorial and putting Jefferson on the nickel, completely overthrew the Jeffersonian understanding of American government -- replacing it with the ideas, like unlimited Federal spending, that had been advocated by Jefferson's greatest enemy, the Federalist Alexander Hamilton. The New Deal undid the Jeffersonian revolution of 1800 and lodged a cancer in American government. The disease has grown steadily ever since.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Weekly Standard believes decline is a choice: "Facing the choice of whether to maintain our dominance or to gradually, deliberately, willingly, and indeed relievedly give it up, we are currently on a course towards the latter."
The Corporate Justice Blog speculates about Runaway Debt:
...the cards were stacked in favor of a debt binge parading as financial "innovation." No amount of innovation can spare a nation from the pain of unsustainably high debt levels.

Runaway debt combined with runaway unemployment poses a major threat to our standard of living, yet our leaders and our mainstream media seem oblivious to the problem. Mainstream Law & Economics is similarly bankrupt.
Sadly true, though I've noticed some economists being introspective. I don't follow law blogs as closely, so I'm not sure about them.

Rush and St Louis Radio

Sharp Elbows defends Rush Limbaugh: 'The show's host, Jeff Gordon, who also writes for the St. Louis Post Dispatch, doesn't like Rush too much. After a few minutes of Rush bashing he goes on to say that Limbaugh "Incites Violence Against The Administration."' Sharp took his camera and asked the hosts a few questions. Checkout the video at the link.
Congress is considering a second stimulus [emphasis added]:
Confronted with big job losses and no sign the U.S. economy is ready to stand on its own, Democrats are working on a growing list of relief efforts, leaving for later how to pay for them, or whether even to bother.
Congress must believe the first stimulus was a success.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Video of the St Charles Tea Party


The playlist above contains all of the speeches from the St Charles Tea Party. I used a mix of cameras, so the image and audio quality varies in places. If you only watch one clip, watch the last one, #19.

This is the first event that I had a camera dedicated to crowd coverage. In some of the clips above, I cut to the crowd for their reaction. Unfortunately, it was dark by the time Paul Curtman took the stage, so I don't have any crowd cuts in his clips. FWIW, I had all three video cameras running while Paul was speaking: one on the crowd, a tripod mounted one on Paul, and a third hand-held video camera also on Paul. The tape (yeah, I hate tape) in the tripod mounted camera ran out before Paul finished, but that's why I had the hand-held. So, if you were wondering how many cameras one person can operate at once, my record is three for just over thirty minutes.

Thanks to Alex of ConservativeTVonline.com for giving me a copy of his excellent audio!

Previously:
Cross Coverage:
POedPatriot warns about the "Watermelons":
What is Man Made Global Warming (MMGW)? Why nothing more than the latest manufactured crisis by the Watermelons (Green on the outside, Marxist Red on the inside) to control humanity and not just in a few Western nations but world wide.
Communists and other "post-moderns" constantly disguise themselves.

ACORN and Carnahan

The MOGOP has found some interesting connections between ACORN and Robin Carnahan:
5 Years Carnahan has been MO's chief elections official
13 ACORN workers who have pleaded guilty to federal charges in MO
1000+ Fraudulent voter registration cards submitted by ACORN on Carnahan's watch
0 Times Robin Carnahan has publicly criticized ACORN
Meanwhile, "The Editor" at 24thstate.com, is investigating a possibly illegal link between between Robin Carnahan and FiredUpMissouri. Hey, Robin, timing... Timing is everything.
Eric S. Raymond examines the ripple effect of ACORN’s fall:
Anybody who thinks politics ought to at least be a game played cleanly should welcome having this whole swamp drained. But cheering for that cleanup won’t come easy for Democrats. In a society as relatively law-governed as the U.S.’s, electoral fraud is not a risk any political network can take lightly; the natural and logical suspicion is that if Democrats have been complicit in large-scale vote fraud through organizations like ACORN and SEIU it’s because without it they could not win national elections at all.
Jay Cost at the Hores Race Blog on the Baucus bill:
If there was to be an up-or-down vote on the Baucus bill, my guess is that it would be defeated by a left-right coalition. I base that conclusion on a perusal of the progressive and conservative blogs, which generally consider the Baucus bill to be horrible.
Now that's America coming together!
Gateway Pundit reports that Sen. DeMint went to Honduras and discovered that our ambassador is the only person who thinks there was a 'coup':
In a day packed with meetings, we met only one person in Honduras who opposed Mr. Zelaya's ouster, who wishes his return, and who mystifyingly rejects the legitimacy of the November elections: U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens...

The Hondurans I met agree. All everyone seemed to want was a chance to make their case, or at least an independent review of the facts.
I still want to know who's paying to keep the lights on at the Honduran embassy in DC. Shouldn't those shills for Zelaya diplomats be recalled?

Ian Vasquez at CATO wonders: What Does the State Department Not Want Us to Know about Honduras? "...a legal analysis at the State Department prepared by its top lawyer that apparently has informed Washington’s policy but that has not been made public..."

Gateway Pundit also reported that Honduran President Micheletti wants Zelaya arrested if he leaves his spider hole the Brazilian Embassy:
the Hondurans are fighting back against Obama's misguided foreign policy. They announced that they will arrest the corrupt Zelaya if he tries to set foot on Honduran soil. The leftist thug Zelaya is currently hiding out in the Brazilian Embassy in Honduras.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

The Silver Lining

Here's the October 2nd Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Summary [emphasis added]:
Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline in September (-263,000), and the unemployment rate (9.8 percent) continued to trend up, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The largest job losses were in construction, manufacturing, retail trade, and government.
I'd like to think that the lose of government jobs is representative of a shrinking leviathan, but I'm not that optimistic.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Inflation

The graph above illustrates the monetary base in blue vs the employment ratio (number of people working / total population) in red. Quickly increasing M0 was part of the US government's strategy to save the banking system, so the drastic increase that you see in the graph above is much just a blip in the M1 and M2 numbers.

As banks begin to lend again, the graphs of M1 and M2 will start to look like M0. Presumably more people will be employed by then, so the red line will head back up. This looks like a good time to be working. You've got more and more dollars chasing fewer and fewer workers, so it seems likely that salaries will be increasing. That supposition depend on the velocity of money, but that only looks to be down about 12% year-to-year.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Crowdsourcing Healthcare Bill Review

Team Sarah, a Ning.com group of about 75,000 fans of Sarah Palin, is mobilizing their members to review the upcoming healthcare legislation. If you would like to participate, they have setup a Healthcare Bill Review Board that you can join. You will have to join Team Sarah first. They plan to dole out the bill in 15 to 20 page chunks. Volunteers are expected to highlight important points, paragraphs, and page numbers in a discussion thread on the Team Sarah site. They'd like fast turn around—a couple hours—but don't let that dissuade you. Getting hundreds, or even thousands, of people to help review the bill will speed up the review process. Please join this crowdsourced project and then invite your friends!

Saturday, October 10, 2009

UNC study pinpoints gene controlling number of brain cells: "The finding suggests that GSK-3 controls the signals that determine how many neurons actually end up composing the brain. It also has important implications for patients with neuropsychiatric illness, as links have recently been drawn between GSK-3 and schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder."

California Dreamin'

California's budget is in the red 10 weeks after passage and they don't know why [ed: here's a clue—spending]:
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will know within a month whether a $1.1 billion drop in revenue collections is part of a growing budget shortfall or an isolated event, his budget spokesman said...

The budget news comes as the most populous U.S. state prepares to sell as much as $15 billion of bonds...
Who's gonna buy that debt? Obviously, people that expect a bailout of California. They also have to expect not to be treated like GM's bondholders. Do any of those people have money left?

Similarities between the USSR and the US

Eric S. Raymond sees similarities between our current predicament and the collapse of the USSR in the post uncivil society and the collapse of the nomenklatura:
A few moments ago, I read a review of a new book, Uncivil Society: 1989 and the Implosion of the Communist Establishment, and the following sentences jumped out at me:
This is less a story of dissidents, so-called civil society, than of the bankruptcy of a ruling class–communism’s establishment, or “uncivil society.” The Communists borrowed from the West like drunken sailors to buy mass consumer goods, then were unable to pay back the hard-currency debts and so borrowed even more. In Eastern Europe, communism came to resemble a Ponzi scheme, one whose implosion carries enduring lessons.
...democratic politics must more or less inevitably degenerate into a mad scramble among interest groups seeking to corner ever-higher rents from their ability to swing votes; see my previous post Some Iron Laws of Political Economics for discussion. So, where does it end? Increasingly, it looks like the answer is “when the creditors of the resulting Ponzi scheme decide they’ve had enough”.

Under today’s conditions, given who’s holding the biggest wad of T-bonds, that decision will probably be made in Peking.
Whew, it's a "good" thing we've got stuff China wants! If third world China provides first world America with a little debt forgiveness then we can send them:
  • Aircraft carrier battle groups
  • The Dalai Lama
  • Recognition of China's claims to Formosa (aka: Taiwan) and Tibet
(Note: I'm not advocating this. I'm pointing out that the bills will come due and China's not going to accept a massively debased currency.)

Friday, October 9, 2009

Congratulations, President Obama!

Just wanted to praise The Won for another win: the Noble Peace Prize. Now that you have the accolades, maybe you'll do something to merit them.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Dana Loesch at the St Louis Science Center's Segway Scramble

Dana LoeschDana Loesch before the Race

St Louis area media personalities participated in the Science Center's Segway Scramble to help promote SciFest 09. Dana Loesch and her producer, Kevin, represented 97.1FM. KSDK channel 5 has video of reporter Heidi Glaus competing in the race. While I was disappointed to hear—well, not hear, in this case—that cutbacks at KSDK include the left audio channel, I was heartened at their decision to retain the right! (Perhaps they've fixed that?)

I tweeted two pictures from the event:
Dana went on to take fourth in the final race. More importantly, I was able to get some audio of her singing. You see, part of the race included singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.
Cholesterol necessary for brain development: "The study... demonstrates that the formation of dopamine-producing neurons during brain development in mice is dependent on the activation of a specific receptor in the brain by an oxidised form of cholesterol called oxysterol." Go lard up your brain!
Eric S. Raymond explains why artists defend Roman Polanski: "This dispute isn’t about politics, it’s about privilege — not just whether Roman Polanski is above the law, but about whether his defenders can claim to be too." It's professional courtesy, Hollywood style.

Democracy for Iran


A Tea Party photographer sent in this picture taken near the intersection of Manchester and 141.

Cross Coverage:
Atlas Shrugs reports that ACORN Threw Out Republican Voter Registrations:
In February of 2008, Fathiyyah Muhammad of Jacksonville, Florida, heard that ACORN was paying three dollars for each vote you could register. Fatiyyah claims she registered voters for Acorn there (at three dollars each), but that the group threw out her votes and fired her when she brought them GOP registrations.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Russ Carnahan and Nancy Pelosi at the Chase


Nancy Pelosi speaks at Russ Carnahan's fund raiser

While a handful of people protested outside the Chase, conservative operatives infiltrated the Russ Carnahan (D-MO) fund raiser held high above the people on the roof. In the video above, we see Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) praise Russ for reliably going along with her agenda. The Editor at 24thstate.com has more details about Carnahan's voting record.

Since the St Louis Tea Party did not organize a protest at the Chase, attendance was light. In addition to a presence on the corner of Kingshighway and Lindell, Tea Party protesters also gathered at a second location toward the back of the building.

The Corner of Lindel and Kingshighway

The green jobs folks were there to show their support for Congressman Carnahan. They were really nice. Unlike the Purple People Beaters, they seem to have figured out the old adage about catching flies with honey instead of vinegar. Presumably their green helmets are environmentally friendly, but I didn't think to ask them about that. If the helmets are not made of some biodegradable soy product, you can rest easy knowing that they'll fret more about that than you will.

The friendly opposition

The final picture below is to remind the Green Jobs folks of the three R's of conservation: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Looks like they could've done better reducing the number of pre-printed signs. Hopefully, they collected the ones that were used so that they might be reused at the next event.

Fertilizer for AstroTurf

Friday, October 2, 2009

St Charles Tea Party


I attended the St Charles Tea Party Friday night. It's going to be a few days before I get the video posted. I know that there are a couple of holes in my coverage so I've asked the other Tea Party videographers to help me fill those. That said, you can see my real-time photo coverage on twitpic. I've been doing that for a lot of events recently. I guess that makes me a twitter photo journalist... Follow me on Twitter if you'd like to see more reporting like this.

I filmed this teaparty differently from previous events. This is the first time I had a camera setup for crowd reaction. Using two flip cameras gives you a lot of flexibility and this is just another example of that. During Paul Curtman's speech, I had all three cameras rolling: one on the crowd and two on Paul (one 720p and one 1080i). That's the first time I've done three cameras simultaneously. Two of them were on tripods.

Here are a few pictures that didn't make it into my twitter coverage:

Crowd Photos 30 Minutes before Start

Kevin Jackson signs book for a wheel-chair bound fan

FOX 2 Van
Cross Coverage:

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Video of Ed Martin's Announcement Rally


At McArthur's Bakery on the evening of September 30th, Ed Martin announced his candidacy for Missouri's Third Congressional District. The playlist above includes the following eight videos:


Laura AlterLaura Alter sang the National Anthem

David McArthurDavid McArthur fought back tears as a read a letter from his Marine son

Ed MartinEd Martin announced his candidacy for Missouri's Third Congressional District

Ed Martin Announces Run for MO-03


Laura Alter sings the National Anthem at Ed Martin's announcement rally. Full video coverage is in the works here. Be sure to checkout the links below!

Cross Coverage:
Previously: